NEET admission racket busted in Bhubaneswar; four held with ₹90 lakh in cheques

Bhubaneswar, May 3: In a major operation just ahead of the NEET examination, the Commissionerate Police on Saturday uncovered an interstate racket involved in selling MBBS seats for hefty sums of money. The scam, which spanned multiple states, was aimed at manipulating the highly competitive medical admission process.

At a press briefing, Commissioner of Police S. Dev Datta Singh revealed that four individuals—two from Odisha and one each from Bihar and Jharkhand—have been arrested for their involvement in the racket. Police recovered cheques worth ₹90 lakh from the accused, believed to be payments from medical aspirants in exchange for promised admissions to reputed colleges.

According to Singh, the gang had negotiated several deals and even arranged for impersonators to write the NEET exam on behalf of genuine candidates. The operation’s modus operandi included using local scouts to collect candidate details and Aadhaar cards, which were used to register for the exam. Admit cards were then sent to operatives in Bihar, who arranged proxy candidates to sit the exam.

The gang allegedly charged ₹20–30 lakh per candidate, with ₹4–5 lakh paid to local agents. They also tried to fix NEET centres where such impersonation could go undetected. The Special Crime Unit carried out a coordinated raid leading to the arrests, and further investigations are underway to determine the extent of the fraud and identify other individuals involved.